The present invention relates to a communication terminal device and a rotary operation key, and more particularly, is applicable to a portable telephone device.
With the widespread use of a portable telephone device, various functions have been recently added to a portable telephone device. For example, the telephone numbers of partners are stored in a memory together with the names of the partners and the name of a desired partner is selected from the names of the partners read out on a display unit in accordance with the read instruction, so as to read out the telephone number of the desired partner, which is a so-called telephone directory function. Such a telephone directory function is added to the portable telephone device so that a user can read the telephone number by the name of a partner and call the partner even if the user does not remember the telephone number.
In a portable telephone device having a conventional telephone directory function, it is necessary to scroll through the names of a plurality of partners to select the name of a desired partner from the names of a plurality of partners displayed on the display unit. For this reason, a conventional portable telephone device includes an upward key and a downward key so as to direct that the partner""s names to be displayed are scrolled upward and downward. However, if operation keys are provided separately in this way, two operation keys are needed to be operated. Thus, there is a problem that the operational efficiency lowers.
To solve the above problem, as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application No. 232327/1994, the applicant proposes a communication terminal device which can give a scroll direction upward and downward and give a direction to determine the partner with one operation key by providing a rotary operation key which can be pushed in the inner direction of the body. According to the communication terminal device, the rotary operation key is rotated in a desired direction so as to scroll the partner""s names in a desired direction, and at the same time, the rotary operation key is pushed in the inner direction of the body so as to determine the partner. Therefore, all operations can be performed with one operation key, thereby improving the operational efficiency remarkably compared to conventional keys.
In the communication terminal device having the rotary operation key, when the partners to be selected increase, it is necessary to rotate the rotary operation key a lot of times to find a desired partner. This device leaves a problem to be improved in an operational point.
The present invention is made to solve the above problem and its object is to provide a communication terminal device which improves usability and has an operational efficiency superior to a conventional device.
To solve the above problem, the present invention comprises: a body case having the outward shape which is held with one hand in the state that the thumb or the base of the thumb is put on one side of it; an operation key, which has a disc member wherein a projection being a part of the outer of the disc member slightly projected from the one side to the outside is provided at the position where the thumb is put on the one side of the body case so that the projection comes into contact with the thumb rotatively, for supporting the disc member in such a way that the disc member rotates when the thumb is bent and extended to rub the one side to give the rotative power to the disc member, or in such a way that the disc member moves in the pushed direction when the thumb is pushed into the inside of the one side to give the push power toward the inner of the body case to the disc member, or in such a way that the disc member moves in the depth direction when the thumb is slid on the one side to give the strength toward the depth direction of the body case to the disc member; operation detecting means for detecting the rotation, push, and slide of the operation key; storing means for storing a plurality of items; display means for displaying a plurality of items from among the plurality of items read out from the storing means and displaying a cursor; and control means for moving the cursor in a desired direction to match the cursor position with one of the plurality of items and display it in accordance with the detected result of the rotation of the operation key output from the operation detecting means, for changing the movement direction or movement amount of the cursor caused by the rotation in accordance with the detected result of the slide of the operation key output from the operation detecting means, and for determining the item where the cursor is positioned in accordance with the detected result of the push of the operation key output from the operation detecting means.
In this way, the operation key can be rotated, pushed, and slid and the movement direction or the movement amount of the cursor is changed when the operation key is slid. Thereby, the cursor can reach a desired item quickly, with the result that the rotation amount to reach a desired item can be reduced compared to conventional keys.
Further, this invention comprises: a body case having the outward shape which is held with one hand in the state that the thumb or the base of the thumb is put on one side of it; an operation key, which has a disc member wherein a projection being a part of the outer of the disc member slightly projected from the one side to the outside is provided at the position where the thumb is put on the one side of the body case so that the projection comes into contact with the thumb rotatively, for supporting the disc member in such a way that the disc member rotates when the thumb is bent and extended to rub the one side to give the rotative power to the disc member, or in such a way that the disc member moves in the pushed direction when the thumb is pushed into the inside of the one side to give the push power toward the inner of the body case to the disc member, or in such a way that the disc member moves in the depth direction when the thumb is slid on the one side to give the strength toward the depth direction of the body case to the disc member; operation detecting means for detecting the rotation, push, and slide of the operation key; storing means for storing a plurality of hierarchical items; display means for displaying a desired item among from the plurality of items stored in the storing means and displaying a cursor; and control means for moving the cursor in a predetermined direction on upper hierarchical items in accordance with the detected result of the rotation of the operation key output from the operation detecting means when the upper hierarchical items are displayed on the display means, for moving the cursor in a predetermined direction on lower hierarchical items in accordance with the detected result of the push of the operation key output from the operation detecting means when the lower hierarchical items are displayed on the display means, and for determining the lower hierarchical item where the cursor is being displayed in accordance with the detected result of the slide of the operation key output from the operation detecting means.
In this way, the operation key can be rotated, pushed, and slid. Then, the cursor moves on the upper hierarchical items when the operation key is rotated, the cursor moves in a predetermined direction on the lower hierarchical items when the operation key is pushed, and the lower hierarchical item where the cursor is displayed is determined when the operation key is slid. Thereby, the selection and determination can be performed independently on the lower hierarchical items, with the result that the rotational efficiency when selecting a desired item from the hierarchical items can be improved.
Further, according to this invention, a rotary operation key provided in the body case of the electronic device which includes the body case having the outward shape held with one hand in the state that the thumb or the base of the thumb is put on one side of it, comprises: a disc member wherein a projection being a part of the outer of the disc member slightly projected from the one side to the outside is provided at the position where the thumb is put on the one side of the body case so that the projection comes into contact with the thumb rotatively; and supporting means for supporting the disc member in such a way that the disc member rotates when the thumb is bent and extended to rub the one side to give the rotative power to the disc member, or in such a way that the disc member moves in the pushed direction when the thumb is pushed into the inside of the one side to give the push power toward the inner of the body case to the disc member, or in such a way that the disc member moves in the depth direction when the thumb is slid on the one side to give the strength toward the depth direction of the body case to the disc member.
Such a rotary operation key is provided in the electronic device, so as to operate the rotary operation key in three directions in the state that the body case is held with one hand. Thereby, the operational efficiency and the usability of the electronic device can be improved.